Kinetic Monte Carlo methods provide a powerful computational tool for the simulation of microscopic processes such as the diffusion of interacting particles on a surface, at a detailed atomistic level. However such algorithms are typically computationally expensive and are restricted to fairly small spatiotemporal scales. One approach towards overcoming this problem was the development of coarse-grained Monte Carlo algorithms. In recent literature, these methods were shown to be capable of efficiently describing much larger length scales while still incorporating information on microscopic interactions and fluctuations. In this paper, a coarse-grained Langevin system of stochastic differential equations as approximations of diffusion of interacting particles is derived, based on these earlier coarse-grained models. The authors demonstrate the asymptotic equivalence of transient and long time behavior of the Langevin approximation and the underlying microscopic process, using asymptotics methods such as large deviations for interacting particles systems, and furthermore, present corresponding numerical simulations, comparing statistical quantities like mean paths, auto correlations and power spectra of the microscopic and the approximating Langevin processes. Finally, it is shown that the Langevin approximations presented here are much more computationally efficient than conventional Kinetic Monte Carlo methods, since in addition to the reduction in the number of spatial degrees of freedom in coarse-grained Monte Carlo methods, the Langevin system of stochastic differential equations allows for multiple particle moves in a single timestep.

The author studies two singular limits of the convective Navier-Stokes equations. The hydrostatic limit is first studied: the author shows the existence of global solutions with a convex pressure field and derives them from the convective Navier-Stokes equations as long as the pressure field is smooth and strongly convex. The (friction dominated) Darcy limit is also considered, and a relaxed version is studied.

The authors investigate the long-term dynamics of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes-Voight model of viscoelastic incompressible fluid. Specifically, upper bounds for the number of determining modes are derived for the 3D Navier-Stokes-Voight equations and for the dimension of a global attractor of a semigroup generated by these equations. Viewed from the numerical analysis point of view the authors consider the Navier-Stokes-Voight model as a non-viscous (inviscid) regularization of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. Furthermore, it is also shown that the weak solutions of the Navier-Stokes-Voight equations converge, in the appropriate norm, to the weak solutions of the inviscid simplified Bardina model, as the viscosity coefficient ν → 0.

To explain the oscillatory nature of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), many ENSO theories emphasize the free oceanic equatorial waves propagating/reflecting within the Pacific Ocean, or the discharge/recharge of Pacific-basin-averaged ocean heat content. ENSO signals in the Indian and Atlantic oceans are often considered as remote response to the Pacific SST anomaly through atmospheric teleconnections. This study investigates the ENSO life cycle near the equator using long-term observational datasets. Space-time spectral analysis is used to identify and isolate the dominant interannual oceanic and atmospheric wave modes associated with ENSO. Nino3 SST anomaly is utilized as the ENSO index, and lag-correlation/regression are used to construct the composite ENSO life cycle. The propagation, structure and feedback mechanisms of the dominant wave modes are studied in detail. The results show that the dominant oceanic equatorial wave modes associated with ENSO are not free waves, but are two ocean-atmosphere coupled waves including a coupled Kelvin wave and a coupled equatorial Rossby (ER) wave. These waves are not confined only to the Pacific Ocean, but are of planetary scale with zonal wavenumbers 1–2, and propagate all the way around the equator in more than three years, leading to the longer than 3-year period of ENSO. When passing the continents, they become uncoupled atmospheric waves. The coupled Kelvin wave has larger variance than the coupled ER wave, making the total signals dominated by eastward propagation. Surface zonal wind stress (x) acts to slow down the waves. The two coupled waves interact with each other through boundary reflection and superposition, and they also interact with an off-equatorial Rossby wave in north Pacific along 15N through boundary reflection and wind stress forcing. The precipitation anomalies of the two coupled waves meet in the eastern Pacific shortly after the SST maximum of ENSO and excite a dry atmospheric Kelvin wave which quickly circles the whole equator and leads to a zonally symmetric signal of troposphere temperature. ENSO signals in the Indian and Atlantic oceans are associated with the two coupled waves as well as the fast atmospheric Kelvin wave. The discharge/recharge of Pacific-basin-averaged ocean heat content is also contributed by the two coupled waves. The above results suggest the presence of an alternative coupled wave oscillator mechanism for the oscillatory nature of ENSO.

Two approaches for the efficient rational approximation of the Fermi-Dirac function are discussed: one uses the contour integral representation and conformal mapping, and the other is based on a version of the multipole representation of the Fermi-Dirac function that uses only simple poles. Both representations have logarithmic computational complexity. They are of great interest for electronic structure calculations.

The authors establish error estimates for recently developed finite-element methods for incompressible viscous flow in domains with no-slip boundary conditions. The methods arise by discretization of a well-posed extended Navier-Stokes dynamics for which pressure is determined from current velocity and force fields. The methods use C ¹ elements for velocity and C ⁰ elements for pressure. A stability estimate is proved for a related finite-element projection method close to classical time-splitting methods of Orszag, Israeli, DeVille and Karniadakis.

After Bénard’s experiment in 1900, Rayleigh formulated heat convection problems by the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation in the horizontal strip domain in 1916. The pattern formations have been investigated by the bifurcation theory, weakly nonlinear theories and computational approaches. The boundary conditions for the velocity on the upper and lower boundaries are usually assumed as stress-free or no-slip. In the first part of this paper, some bifurcation pictures for the case of the stress-free on the upper boundary and the no-slip on the lower boundary are obtained. In the second part of this paper, the bifurcation pictures for the case of the stress-free on both boundaries by a computer assisted proof are verified. At last, Bénard-Marangoni heat convections for the case of the free surface of the upper boundary are considered.

The roots of hyperbolic polynomials satisfy the linear inequalities that were previously established for the eigenvalues of Hermitian matrices, after a conjecture by A. Horn. Among them are the so-called Weyl and Lidskiĭ inequalities. An elementary proof of the latter for hyperbolic polynomials is given. This proof follows an idea from H. Weinberger and is free from representation theory and Schubert calculus arguments, as well as from hyperbolic partial differential equations theory.

In this paper, solutions with nonvanishing vorticity are established for the three dimensional stationary incompressible Euler equations on simply connected bounded three dimensional domains with smooth boundary. A class of additional boundary conditions for the vorticities are identified so that the solution is unique and stable.

It is well-known that physical laws for large chaotic dynamical systems are revealed statistically. Many times these statistical properties of the system must be approximated numerically. The main contribution of this manuscript is to provide simple and natural criterions on numerical methods (temporal and spatial discretization) that are able to capture the stationary statistical properties of the underlying dissipative chaotic dynamical systems asymptotically. The result on temporal approximation is a recent finding of the author, and the result on spatial approximation is a new one. Applications to the infinite Prandtl number model for convection and the barotropic quasi-geostrophic model are also discussed.

Riemann problems for the compressible Euler system in two space dimensions are complicated and difficult, but a viable alternative remains missing. The author lists merits of one-dimensional Riemann problems and compares them with those for the current two-dimensional Riemann problems, to illustrate their worthiness. Two-dimensional Riemann problems are approached via the methodology promoted by Andy Majda in the spirits of modern applied mathematics; that is, simplified model is built via asymptotic analysis, numerical simulation and theoretical analysis. A simplified model called the pressure gradient system is derived from the full Euler system via an asymptotic process. State-of-the-art numerical methods in numerical simulations are used to discern smallscale structures of the solutions, e.g., semi-hyperbolic patches. Analytical methods are used to establish the validity of the structure revealed in the numerical simulation. The entire process, used in many of Majda’s programs, is shown here for the two-dimensional Riemann problems for the compressible Euler systems of conservation laws.